I wasn't dispirited by this loss. I was confident enough in the Pistons that I was glad when Orlando first cut into what turned out to be the last Piston lead. I liked the pace the Pistons have been playing at and I thought they would withstand the Magic run.

To be fair to Stuckey lots of guards have lost their jobs to white guys who played PF in college and were drafted in the 2nd round.

If Singler is here to stay then they should move Jerebko. They're redundant and the Pistons got too many holes elsewhere to need them both.

It was discouraging watching Orlando badly out execute the Pistons on offense down the stretch.

Knight with 12 assists tonight and the other 9 Pistons who played combined for 9 assists.

Singler had another great +/- night, but man Redick torched him.

Afflalo played out of position, had a great offensive night, but made Tay look like an all-star there for a while due to the length mismatch. One of Tay's best games in a while because of it, and also because he was just making shots.

The Bynum, Stuckey, Maggette line has got to be retired after its first appearance. That is way too many dudes doing the same exact act. I think there is a term for that, but it eludes me...

To be fair to Stuckey lots of guards have lost their jobs to white guys who played PF in college and were drafted in the 2nd round.

Click to expand...

I was really noticing that Singler just looks like a borderline PF physically. Pretty big guy and he actually plays big in the paint when he gets caught in the trees.

And yeah, Drummond is freaky quick. He sort of lumbers around and then has speed bursts when he needs them. It looks like he's being lazy on the rebounding by the way that he sort of conserves motion, and then he just snaps them up. Same with the blocks and even the catches under the rim. He seems to not ever drop a pass no matter how unlikely the pass is.

And tonight was the 2nd time that he pulled off the 1 man fast break this year.

On a separate note, Monroe is really hitting his stride. He knows his game like he's a 32 year old. As soon as the coach gets his act together, we really might have one of the top 5 big man duos in the league. Drummond might be raw on shots and post moves, but he can catch and finish like nobody we've ever had. And it so happens then Monroe looks like one of the best passing big men that we've ever had.

The losses aren't bothering me b/c I see so much waste that can easily be corrected.

I really have done a 180 on Maggettte. I love seeing him out there organizing the team on the court. Is it just the contract year?

If it weren't for this years addition of Drummond it seems like the Magic would have a better front court than the Pistons right after losing Dwight Howard. Davis and that other guy didn't seem half bad.

First, Tay only plays as needed, especially if we can use him to exploit a matchup where they have a smaller defender on him.

Start Knight, Middleton, Singler, Monroe, Drummond

2nd unit: Stuckey, English, Daye, JMAX, (Drummond or Monroe, with Kravtsov playing some if foul trouble)

Or. Trade to get Macklin back. Then:

Same starters. 2nd unit becomes: same, except Macklin is the primary sub for the bigs so we maintain size and athleticism at all times.

We do whatever it takes to get Corliss Williamson as a coach, and have him work with JMAX on his post up skills - then JMAX comes in on occasion at small forward to slaughter their small forward. For instance, we could have a unit of:

Knight, Middleton, JMAX, Monroe, Drummond. Just like how we covered for Corliss being slow as a small forward, we have JMAX hang around the hoop with everyone else helping to cover the perimeter to some extent. And just like Corliss, JMAX tortures their small forward with post up move after post up move. I bring this up because to an extent JMAX was doing some of this last night - but its not optimized as we are not playing him at small forward, and we are not consistently posting him up.

Remember the combo of Barry and Jones in the backcourt, feeding Corliss regularly. And if not Corliss, Zelly? They had a knack for finding a way to get Corliss the ball just as he locked out his defender. They knew the feed angles so if the defense blocked one angle, the 2nd guard would be in the right spot to receive a pass and quickly feed the post from a different angle. A thing of beauty. Matter of fact, get Barry and maybe even Jones here. We got to recreate this stuff.

To that, we get to dress three more guys, though we can only play 2 of them in any game. (It was explained to me - by someone here - that the new rule is you can dress 13, but can only play 12)

Tay is dressed, and will play if the other team has three short guys in one of their units so Tay can go out and burn them. JMAX is dressed for a fifth big and to go in against their small forward if they are using a small forward who is slight of build and simply can't contend with JMAX. And finally, you got your choice of a 13th player, used for emergencies only. For now, lets say that is Maggette. No, you should not need Bynum, as between Stuckey and Knight, they have 12 fouls to give - as long as neither plays any shooting guard, we simply do not need Bynum.

Seems like the Pistons give up a ton of points in the fourth quarter this season. I wonder if a Bill Laimbeer-coached team gives up this many on a consistent basis.

Click to expand...

If this team goes 2 and 25, then we would have the same fan issues here with everyone calling to oust Frankenweenie and wanting Bill Jackson-Phil Laimbeer to coach the team and we then wind up with Stan Van Gumby...